education management essay

Educational Leadership and Management Reflective Essay

My new skills about educational management and leadership, reference list.

Schools and colleges bring teachers, parents, and students together (Fitzgerald, 2009). Each of these groups has its unique goals and objectives. Every school leader should employ the best strategies in order to mentor these stakeholders.

School leadership is a complex practice aimed at guiding teachers and learners. Educational leadership is one of the best practices towards improving the performance of different learners.

I have gained new skills as a school leader. My first understanding is that the quality of school leadership determines the performance of every learning institution. This explains why every person should apply the best educational leadership skills. Every institution requires the best leaders in order to attain its goals.

The best leaders will ensure their institutions provide quality education to their learners. Leadership should promote “performance, openness, mentorship, and teamwork” (Day, Gronn, & Salas, 2004, p. 874).

I will use this knowledge in order to become a successful educational leader. Every educational leader should focus on the best goals (Cranston & Ehrich, 2009).

Creating Teams

The first concept towards better educational leadership is creating cohesive teams. According to Bush (2007, p. 396), “a team is a group of individuals whose mission is to achieve a set of common goals or solve the problems affecting them”.

Every team member is committed to the targeted goals or objectives. A team will succeed if it has a good mentor or leader. A motivated team will achieve its goals much easier. The class readings have also explored some of the best practices towards better educational leadership.

Leaders should use different teams in order to achieve their goals (Sheard & Kakabadse, 2004). This practice will ensure every team achieves its educational goals (National College of School Leadership, 2009).

Team Leadership

Team leadership is a dynamic approach that ensures every learner achieves his or her academic goals. The readings have widened my skills as a team leader in an academic environment. The application of proper leadership ensures every team achieves its goals.

Every team leader should be competent and self-determined (Mayrowetz, 2008). I am also planning to become a professional team leader.

Team leaders should be ready to promote cohesiveness and improve the level of communication. Team leadership is “the ability to solve every problem affecting a given group” (Hall, 2002, p. 730).

Distributed and Middle Leadership

Distributed leadership remains a major practice in many learning institutions. This leadership approach helps every manager devolve his or her responsibilities across the institution. This leadership approach follows a top-down strategy.

This leadership approach is effective because it improves the level of academic performance (Johnson, 2003). The class materials have also informed me about the importance of middle leadership. Middle leaders examine every aspect of their learning institutions.

The leader “promotes enquiry, professional development, and curriculum” (Sheard & Kakabadse, 2004, p. 102). This leader also encourages his students and teachers to establish new teams.

The leaders sustain the best networks in order to achieve their goals. I have understood why every educational leader should use the best leadership styles.

I have gained new skills from the learning process. I am planning to use these skills in my future professional practice. A good educational leader supports every teacher or learner (Gunter & Fitzgerald, 2007).

Every manager should portray the best organisational behaviours. Different leadership models such as transformational and transactional practices will ensure every learner is contented with the learning environment. I will always use these practices in order to create the best teams.

Bush, T. (2007). Educational leadership and management: theory, policy, and practice. South African Journal of Education, 27 (3), 391-406.

Cranston, N., & Ehrich, L. (2009). Senior management teams in schools: Understanding their dynamics, enhancing their effectiveness. Leading and Managing, 15 (1), 14-25.

Day, D., Gronn, P., & Salas, E. (2004). Leadership capacity in teams. The Leadership Quarterly, 15 (6), 857-880.

Fitzgerald, T. (2009). The Tyranny of Bureaucracy: Continuing challenges of Leading and Managing . Educational management administration and Leadership, 37 (1), 51-65.

Gunter, H., & Fitzgerald, T. (2007). Leading learning and leading teachers: Challenges for schools in the 21st Century. Leading and Managing, 13 (1), 1-15.

Hall, V. (2002). From teamwork to team-work in education. In K. Leithwood & P. Hallinger (Eds.), Second international handbook of educational leadership and administration. Part 2 (pp. 697-733). London: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

Johnson, N. (2003). Working in Teams . Web.

Mayrowetz, D. (2008). Making sense of distributed leadership: Exploring the multiple usages of the concept in the field. Educational Administration Quarterly, 44 (3), 424-435.

National College of School Leadership. (2009). School leadership: Federations and distributed leadership . Web.

Sheard, G., & Kakabadse, A. (2004). A process perspective on leadership and team development. Journal of Management Development, 23 (1), 7-106.

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Educational management.

• Richard Lynch , Richard Lynch Assumption University of Thailand
• Poonpilas Asavisanu , Poonpilas Asavisanu Assumption University of Thailand
• Kanog-on Rungrojngarmcharoen Kanog-on Rungrojngarmcharoen Srinakharinwirot University
•  and  Yan Ye Yan Ye Assumption University of Thailand
• https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.013.701
• Published online: 29 May 2020

Educational management is one of a trilogy of overlapping concepts, along with educational administration and educational leadership. These three concepts are related but nonetheless possess definitional differences depending on where the terms are applied.

The complexity of educational management as a concept is evidenced by its inclusion of related but subsidiary though important notions such as ethics, culture, and diversity within differing educational systems. The overall purpose of educational management is to effectively and efficiently create and maintain environments within educational institutions that promote, support, and sustain effective teaching and learning, but how those key objectives are set and the means by which they are attained may differ significantly depending upon education system or level and across educational cultures. In striving to accomplish these goals, educational managers, through thoughtful practical application of management principles, enlist and organize a society’s available resources to attain the educational goals that have been set by that society’s political leaders. As such, the various educational goals set by differing societies to which educational managers at all levels of the educational system must respond are by definition changeable along with changing socioeconomic conditions within a society and the disruption occasioned by the rapid development of digital technologies used as management tools. Educational management, while guiding planned change, must be responsive to unplanned, disruptive change created by rapid changes in both social structures and cultures as well as advances in digital technologies. This is where the element of educational leadership that directs and guides the entire process of educational management and administration takes on particular importance. Leadership includes both manager and teacher professional ethics and is expressed within a variety of theories of ethical leadership in education that respond to cultural imperatives in differing societies. Educational management must be responsive to both global and local changes due to technological developments that directly impact teaching and learning through changes in curriculum in terms of pedagogical and assessment practices. It is in how educational management as a discipline evolves to effectively meet the needs of educational systems contingent upon the challenges derived from technological, social, cultural, and economic changes sweeping the globe in the first decades of the 21st century that will determine the effectiveness and efficacy of management practices going forward. Effectively and innovatively managing change is the primary challenge facing educational management locally, regionally, and globally in the decades ahead.

• educational management
• educational administration
• educational leadership
• globalization
• team building

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The Key to Effective Classroom Management

A three-phase process helps build strong teacher-student bonds, which can reduce disruptive behavior.

It’s a daunting but all-too-common sight for many teachers: A classroom full of rowdy students who are unable to focus on the lesson. Classroom management techniques may get things back on track, but valuable time has already been lost.

Many experienced teachers know that making meaningful connections with students is one of the most effective ways to prevent disruptions in the first place, and a new study set out to assess this approach . In classrooms where teachers used a series of techniques centered around establishing, maintaining, and restoring relationships, academic engagement increased by 33 percent and disruptive behavior decreased by 75 percent—making the time students spent in the classroom more worthwhile and productive.

“Strong teacher-student relationships have long been considered a foundational aspect of a positive school experience,” explains Clayton Cook, the lead author of the study and a professor at the University of Minnesota. When those relationships are damaged, student well-being may be affected, leading to academic and behavioral problems.

In the study, teachers used an approach called Establish-Maintain-Restore to build positive interactions with students—a total of 220 in fourth and fifth grade—and boost their sense of belonging. (A follow-up study with middle school teachers used the same strategies, with similar results.) Relationship-building was broken down into three phases: the first meeting, maintenance throughout the school year, and points when a relationship may suffer damage, with useful strategies for each phase.

Since it can be easy for some students to fall through the cracks, a relationship reflection form—like the one we share here—can help teachers take notes on each individual student and highlight ones who need the most attention.

Starting on a Positive Note

At the start of the school year, the teachers in the study made time for establishing relationships. “The goal is to ensure all students feel a sense of belonging that is characterized by trust, connection, and understanding,” Cook and his colleagues explain. For students with learning or behavioral problems, cultivating positive relationships provided “protective effects” that helped them stay focused on learning.

To establish positive relationships, teachers can:

• “Bank time” with students. Schedule one-on-one meetings with students to get to know them better. The goal is to “make deposits into the relationship” to help ease conflict in the future if you have to give constructive feedback or address disruptive behavior.
• Encourage student-led activities. Students feel more invested in their learning if given opportunity to share their interests . Teachers can step aside, be supportive, and listen.
• Welcome students into the classroom. Activities such as positive greetings at the door and icebreaker questions help create a warm classroom culture.
• Use positive communication techniques. Open-ended questions, reflective listening, validation statements, expressions of enthusiasm or interest, and compliments help students—especially shy or introverted ones—ease into classroom discussions.

Maintaining Relationships

Without active maintenance, relationships deteriorate over time, the study authors point out. Teachers may focus too much on academics and not enough on supporting students’ emotional well-being, slowly using up the banked time they initially built up with students.

Teachers can maintain relationships by continuing to implement the strategies above, and in addition they can:

• Take note of positive and negative interactions with students.  Teachers should aim for a five-to-one ratio.
• Regularly check in with students. Ask how they’re doing and what support they may need. In an Edutopia article, Todd Finley explains how 5x5 assessment time helped him focus on a handful of students every day.
• Acknowledge good behavior. When teachers focus attention on positive conduct, disruptive behavior is stemmed before it becomes an issue.

Repairing Harm Before Things Get Worse

Eventually, negative interactions such as misunderstandings, conflict, or criticism can weaken a teacher-student relationship. If these negative interactions are left unaddressed, students may feel disengaged and be less willing to participate in activities. They may also be more likely to misbehave, creating further damage. So it’s important for teachers to “intentionally reconnect” with students to restore the relationship to a positive state.

When relationships need repair, teachers can:

• Let go and start fresh. Teachers should avoid holding mistakes over a student’s head, instead giving them a chance to start each day with a clean slate.
• Take responsibility for their actions. Teachers can avoid blaming students when things go wrong, and think, “What could I have done to avoid the problem in the first place?” They shouldn’t be afraid to apologize when that’s called for—doing so helps build trust with students.
• Show empathy. There are two sides to every story, and a teacher can acknowledge that students may have a different perspective about what happened.
• Focus on solutions, not problems. Teachers can work with students to find a solution that everyone feels is fair.
• Separate the deed from the doer. It’s important to criticize the behavior, not the person. If teachers label children as “problem students,” there’s a danger that they’ll internalize that label, making it more likely that they’ll repeat the behavior in the future.

The takeaway: Effective classroom management starts with relationship building. When students feel a greater sense of belonging, they’re more likely to be academically engaged and demonstrate positive behavior.